


We Throw Rocks At The Stars Because Our Wishes Never Came True

by ItsaVikingThing



Series: Korrasami Month 2018 [7]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, F/F, Korrasami Month 2018, Maybe even some soulfinding, Post Book1 and Pre Book 2, Prompt: We throw rocks at the stars because our wishes never came true, soulsearching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 10:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17098973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItsaVikingThing/pseuds/ItsaVikingThing
Summary: From the outside, they look like two of the most powerful women in the city.But Asami Sato feels abandoned. She feels trapped, forced into a life she isn't ready for, with no one who can help her. She's the CEO of Future Industries, and that means she has less options than ever before in her life.Korra wants so badly to be the Avatar. But even when she's mastered all four elements, even after she's defeated Amon, Republic City seems keen to push her to the sidelines. She can enter the Avatar state at will, but what use is that power when no one wants her to use it?Some snapshots of their lives after Book 1.





	We Throw Rocks At The Stars Because Our Wishes Never Came True

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know who made the prompt, but it was a great prompt AND a great title, so thanks!

An hour outside Republic City is a small lake concealed by a grove of trees. The Satos used to visit this lake when they were a young family. It's here that Hiroshi Sato first taught Asami how to skip stones. It's to the lake that Asami goes after the Equalists are defeated and Amon has been unmasked. After Hiroshi Sato has been unmasked as an Equalist, as a man-shaped cloak over a mass of festering hate. Asami makes the drive in considerably less than an hour, forcing her Satomobile through the narrow road to the lake, heedless of the branches that claw paint from her Satomobile's sides.

It's to the lake that Asami goes when she parks beside a boulder that she almost ran into. It's night, and the stars are brighter here, away from the lights of Republic City, so Asami has no difficulty picking her way down to the lakeshore. Her feet are steady, her breathing is even, her hands don't shake. She walks until her feet hit the water with a small splash, and then she stops. She sits down, her boots in the water, her body on the rock-strewn earth.

Asami waits. She waits until the small ripples her feet made have melted into nothing, until the lake is a sheet of black glass full of stars. She waits until the cold seeps through her boots and into her bones, but whatever sensation she hoped would come to her remains absent. It doesn't seem to matter that she can barely feel her feet. Asami is already numb.

Her father tried to kill her. 

His fanaticism saw him do worse than that to the whole of Republic City. Asami has no idea how to go about fixing all the damage that he's done, has no real desire, in this moment, to do anything other than sever herself from his name. Perhaps if she could do that, she could build a new life, a life closer to the one she wanted. A life where she could _feel_ wanted, and have it not turn out to be a lie. A life like the one she thought she had.

Her boyfriend, Mako, is gone. He left for the South Pole with the Avatar. With Korra, who has lost most of her bending, and has returned to the South Pole to consult with master Katara. Mako has made Korra his priority, and Asami isn't sure she can blame him. It occurs to her in that moment, as she loses feeling in her toes, that Mako is no longer her boyfriend. He's severed himself from her, surgically, and attached himself to Korra, while Asami is left bleeding and trying to understand when the cut was made.

Her father's company is hers, if Asami wants it. She doesn't, of course. How could she? But for all the evils Hiroshi Sato used Future Industries to do, for all the weapons he created and put into the hands of extremists, so many people who work for the company are innocent. They're men and women with families and responsibilities, people who have had their worlds shaken, too. If Asami steps away...if she lets Future Industries collapse, then what will those people have left? What legacy will her family, and the company, have if she lets Hiroshi's evil be the last word?

Asami's fingers search through the rocks near her, locating a smooth, flat stone. Asami watches with dull curiosity as she picks the stone up, hefts it, then tosses it out across the lake with a snap of her wrist. It skims across the water, sending ripples through the stars, hopping seven times before it sinks. She wonders, then, what affords her such grace? Where does her coordination come from, where do her skills come from? If she were to separate herself from her father, what would she have left? What is Asami without Sato?

Is there enough left to form a stable foundation? What could she hope to build that would last any length of time? If she left Republic City, would she be missed? Or simply cursed by those who hoped to rest their burdens on her? 

"I'm alone," Asami admits to the silence of the world around her. "I've always had...I don't know how to be alone. I don't know what to do. What should I do?"

She waits. She gets no answer. She wonders how different things might be, if Mako were here with her. If Mako had been able to love her, to choose her. She wonders if she'll ever know love again. Perhaps Satos aren't equipped for love. The loss of it to them is surely more ruinous than its absence. It is, after all, within Asami's power to cause great ruin, simply by doing nothing. And she is so very tempted to do nothing.

Asami picks up another stone. She stares at it. Then with a sudden snarl she hurls it at the water, shattering the stars, sending the stone directly to the bottom of the lake. She picks up another, and another, and another, throwing them all without grace or skill. Her muscles bunch and contract with the singular intent of destroying the stillness and the silence and the peace that hangs like a shroud over the lake.

Asami awakens to herself when she finds that she's standing, her throat aching from her screams, her feet clumsy and alien. Her whole body feels clumsy and alien, but Asami knows that this will pass. But will her life ever fit her again? Or will she pass through it as a stranger, wearing a smile so that she doesn't alarm the people who do belong?

With a groan, Asami turns away from the lake and stumbles back to her Satomobile. She trips and falls a couple of times, but she always forces herself upright and carries on until she reaches her goal. When she's sitting behind the wheel, her soaked boots resting on the running board, Asami lets gravity pull her body down until she's a heap of rubble pressed against the leather seat.

"I can't be like him," she whispers. She stares at her hands, pale and freckled with dust and earth. "Which means I can't give up. I can't start over. I can't do _anything_. I have to try to fix everything he's broken."

Asami looks up at sky. The stars are no less bright, no less beautiful, and no less remote than they were earlier. It occurs to her that when she leaves, the only sign of her having been here will be the scratches on the paintwork of her Satomobile.

"It's just a thing," she says tiredly. She sits up straight and tries to wiggle her toes. "It doesn't matter what it was before, or who it belonged to. It's just a thing."

Asami waits. Life comes back to her feet, stabbing and clawing. She endures it in silence.

* * *

Korra sits at the back of Oogi's saddle, her back to the others. The air is cold, this high up, but the air is alive. The air is life itself. It's beautiful. The blue of the sky is thinner here, and in the distance, Korra can see where it edges into blackness. Korra can see the stars.

She can sense Mako behind her, watching her. She's grateful for his presence here, she thinks, but she can only feel that gratitude at a distance. A lot of things feel distant to Korra. She survived Amon and the Equalists. She _defeated_ Amon. She made a connection to her past lives. She finally learned how to airbend. Korra made her way into the world, and she made a difference. There should be a sense of satisfaction, a sense of triumph in those things, but if there is, it's too distant for Korra to grasp it.

Being the Avatar, being a _good_ Avatar, is everything she's ever wanted. Her goal was to find the people who try to make the world worse, people who only the Avatar can stop, and stop them. She was, for a short time, almost who she always thought she could be. But Amon took the rest of her bending, and without it, what sort of Avatar can Korra be? What can she offer the world, offer Mako, offer _anyone_ , if she can't be the Avatar?

Nestled inside her is a tiny spark of hope, that Katara can undo what Amon did, that Korra can be healed, that she can become the Avatar that the world needs. It's a spark as dim and distant as the stars that the strengthening morning snuffs from the sky. It's a hope that will last the length of this trip, that will be kindled into something greater or leave her hollow where a fire used to burn.

Mako puts his hand on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay, Korra. You'll see. No matter what, you've got me."

Korra turns her head and offers him a wan smile. "Yeah. Yeah. One way or another, it's going to be okay."

Korra turns her head back. The sky is a perfect blue. The stars are gone. Korra lets go of her smile and considers the ground below and all the empty air between.

* * *

Asami sits up straight in her desk chair and smiles for the camera. After the flash has burned false impressions into her eyes, she turns to face the man across the desk, careful to keep her smile in place.

Hayato stares at her over a smile every bit as wide and fake as hers. "Ms Sato. How does it feel to be the youngest CEO in Republic City?"

"Like a lot of responsibility. And an opportunity."

"An opportunity? Future Industries stocks are at a record low. Surely this is a moment to retrench?" Hayato looks around the sparsely decorated interior of Asami's new office. She refused to move into her father's office. Hayato clicks his tongue. "Or is this more of a personal opportunity? What opportunity are you pursuing?"

"The opportunity to regain the trust of the public. The opportunity to assure this city, and the world, that Future Industries is bigger than any individual, and has a great deal to offer the world. Our expertise and our excellence are known quantities. We've finished a dark chapter, but the story is far from over."

"But Hiroshi Sato was the chief source of many of Future Industries’ designs. Are you saying the company will be the same without him? Or that you can replace him?"

Asami's smile frays, but she doesn't snap. Calmly, she says, "Neither. I have no interest in replacing my father, and the company won't be the same without him. It will, in time, be better. We have teams of engineers and designers, trained by--"

"You're getting into the arms trade. To try to prevent insolvency." Hayato raises his eyebrows. "I believe you've been planning on selling the mecha-tanks your father designed and put into Equalist hands to foreign governments?"

Asami wonders who told him. She wonders if there will come a point when her workers feel loyal to her, or if the company will fold before that might happen. She clasps her hands loosely and props her elbows on the desk. "We've been suppliers to the military of the United Republic of Nations and the Fire Nation for a number of years."

"Cargo vehicles, generators, some troop transports...not weapons platforms. How does it feel to hope to make a killing selling machines that kill--"

"It feels responsible," Asami says simply. "Republic City possesses mecha-tanks. We’re giving other governments access to technology they'll be working to replicate anyway, and we’re doing it during a time of peace and stability between the nations. We’re giving people access to powerful deterrents during a time when piracy and banditry are unfortunately on the rise. And as our tests have shown, the mecha-tanks can serve a variety of non-military purposes, such as construction work and cargo loading. In fact, one of the benefits of mecha-tanks will be elevating non-bending pilots to skilled roles in--"

"Wait." Hayato's eyes widen, and his smile becomes genuine. "Isn't that an Equalist line?"

"No. It's reality. I would have thought our recent elections would have made it clear that times are changing, Hayato. The Equalists gave way to fanaticism. But there are legitimate non-bender grievances which our new system of government is itself designed to address. All I'm suggesting--"

"Do you think your father would approve of the direction you're taking the company?" Asami takes too long to answer. Hayato waits until she's started to speak before he says, "Do you think he'd approve of you taking on the role of CEO this young?"

Asami stares at him. She waits for him to open his mouth, and then says, "This company is no longer his business. And neither am I."

Hayato grins at her. "Well, that's going to make a lot of people happy, hearing that! Are you happy with how things have worked out, Ms Sato?"

"Am I expected to dignify that with an answer?"

Hayato waves his hands. "Oh, come! There's no need for hostility! I'm simply asking questions that my readers would like to hear the answers to! And my readers are concerned with Future Industries'...ah, future. You can understand that, can't you Ms Sato?"

"Well, I hope that your readers will understand that I am not my father, and I am not guilty for his crimes. I am, however, trying to take responsibility for them."

Hayato waves at his assistant, who stops transcribing. "Good line! But can you blame me for being sceptical? Non-benders have benefited from the Equalist Uprising, and you personally have taken charge of an ailing but still powerful commercial entity. At eighteen."

"I'll be nineteen by the time this article is published."

"Congratulations. You talk about responsibility, but once you've sold those weapons and secured your personal fortune, are you really going to stick around? The Sato name isn't worth much here anymore. Once this ship starts to founder, you'll abandon it. Won't you?"

"Am I supposed to pretend we're off the record because your assistant isn't writing down my answer?"

"Does that mean you won't answer? Please try to be reasonable, Ms Sato. You're going to need a level head and thicker skin if you want to make it in business." He raises his hands before Asami can retort. "But I'll rephrase the question, if you like."

Asami hands clench. Her elbows grind into the desktop. She keeps her expression blank.

He signals to his assistant. She flashes Asami a nervous smile, then bends her head over her notebook.

Hayato clears his throat. "Ms Sato. You have come into a position which brings you a great deal of power, but it isn't an entirely enviable one. You are young and command a substantial personal fortune. You have other options. If the challenges begin to become...difficult, would you really stay in charge of this company?"

Asami takes a moment to work out how to put another smile on her face. "Of course I'll be here. Where else would I go?"

* * *

Korra sits on the couch and watches Mako smooth a crease out of the sleeve of his uniform. He examines himself in the mirror, nods an almost invisible nod, and turns to face her. He smiles stiffly. "Patrol time."

"Yeah." Korra clasps her hands around her knees. "Sure you don't want company?"

He winces, the expression so fleeting that if Korra hadn't been carefully watching, she'd have missed it. "Korra. I can't...you know I need to do this on my own. I'll never be accepted at the precinct if I'm always being shadowed by the Avatar."

Korra shakes her head. "I'm also your girlfriend. Gotta spend time with you sometimes, right?"

"Of course!" Mako laughs. "I mean, we're still going for ramen tomorrow, right?"

"Right."

"And you know if an Avatar crisis comes up, I'll be there."

"Right.

"Just...when I'm in uniform, I'd appreciate it if...well, you know. Unless it is an emergency."

"...right."

There's a silence that stretches thin between them. There have been more of those lately, stretching thinner all the time, but not quite snapping.

Mako sighs. "I can't be late for work. Are you staying the night?"

Korra had planned on it, so she puts on a smile and nods. "See you later?"

He shakes his head. "I'll be back late. And you must be tired, after all the energybending you've been doing. Don't wait up."

"Tired of it, yeah," Korra mutters, looking at her hands. Her knuckles are white with strain.

"What? You don't mean that. You're helping people!"

Korra likes helping people, and restoring the bending that Amon stole is a duty she was only too keen to undertake. But Republic City has a whole new government and Tenzin's been busy overseeing the transition, and Iroh's been busy cleaning up Equalist cells, and Lin's been busy rebuilding the police force, and Mako's been busy joining the police force, and she read today all about how Asami is rebuilding Future Industries, and...

And Korra is the Avatar. For the first time, in truth. She restored her own bending, with the help of her past lives. She is truly the master of all four elements. She is able to enter the Avatar state at will. She has put her darkest moments behind her. The man she loves is by her side, and...and no one seems to want her. For anything. Everyone's busy building a new Republic City, a whole new system of governance, a whole new balance between benders and non-benders and no one seems to want the Avatar near any of it.

Korra might have helped end the crisis Amon precipitated, but in his wake have emerged a series of smaller crises, and Korra has no idea how to deal with them. And no one seems to want her to even try. She's achieved the full power of the Avatar, but she has _nothing to do with it_. She was grudgingly accepted when the fighting was at its most intense, but now...now she feels like each of her connections to the world is being severed and she can only sit and watch everything become more and more distant.

She restored bending to the last people on Tenzin and Lin's list today. That part of her duty is done. She has no other duties waiting for her, other than mastering airbending drills Tenzin is too busy to test her on.

Korra looks up at Mako, trying to work out what to say. He's looking at his watch. She feels anger, thick and hot on her tongue. She swallows it down. "Yeah. Right. I'm helping."

"Exactly! So save your strength."

"...maybe it'd help more if I joined the RCPD?"

Mako snorts. "Funny."

"I'm...what if I'm not joking? The triads haven't gone away. There are still chi blockers, and other Equalists out there, looking to cause trouble. Maybe it'd help if I was out there, too, showing people--"

"Korra. Stop." He walks to the couch and kneels in front of her. He puts a hand on her knee. "You can't join the police force, Korra."

"Why not?" she asks sullenly. "I could be useful if--"

"You're the Avatar. You're too big for any police department. And after the mistake you made with Tarrlok’s Task Force...the RCPD has some work to do, to rebuild its reputation. We can’t do that in the shadow of the Avatar."

“Right.” Korra rests her chin on her knees. Her nails dig into her palms. "Yeah, wouldn’t want me making more mistakes."

He sighs. "I have to go, Korra."

"Right. Think I will, too. See you tomorrow."

He stares at her, his mouth slack and his eyes wide. Then the one tightens and the others narrow. "Fine. Lock up behind you this time. Good night."

He hesitates, but Korra doesn’t look up at him. He still takes a moment to kiss her on the cheek before he goes.

Korra waits until he's long gone before she groans and buries her face in her hands. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me?"

There are no answers to be found by herself in Mako's apartment, not to that question, or any other. So Korra leaves and makes her way to the other place in the city that is not quite home. When she gets back to Air Temple Island, evening is edging into night. She finds Tenzin at the docks, on his way out to another meeting. He smiles a harried smile and says, "Korra! Good! I need a favour."

"Yeah?" Korra straightens her spine and finds herself smiling. "What do you need?"

"Now that your work energybending is done, I was hoping that you'd be available to look after Jinora, Ikki and Meelo. Rohan's been unwell, and Pema has her hands full. I'm going to be in meetings all week, and you're always so good with them. It'd be a huge help."

"Oh. Sure I can't help you with the meetings? Maybe I should be a bit more hands on with the--"

Tenzin looks past Korra's shoulder and waves to the captain of the ferry. "No, no, no! You're the Avatar! We can't have you involved in the business of government. You have to be above that, Korra. These are delicate times, and you have great symbolic value."

"What about actual value?" Korra clenches her fists, but Tenzin is already striding away. Korra shakes her head and in a louder voice says, "Sure! I'll look after the kids. Glad you trust me with that much."

Tenzin pauses, and faces her with a bemused smile. "Of course! You're part of the family, Korra! Thank you. And, since I won't be back until late, good night!"

Korra watches the ferry vanish into the night. She wonders if the night will come that will swallow her, too, and what she'll be remembered for when it does. The thought of lying in her room in the temple becomes too oppressive. She looks out over Yue Bay, and the lights that begin to glow in the city.

She stands rigid as the darkness lowers and the lights rise up, achieving harmony while she can only stand and witness.

* * *

Asami is ankle deep in Yue Bay, staring out across the water at the dark, blocky shape of a cargo ship being guided by a tug into the harbour. The sound of motors chugging carries over the water, and though her nostrils are filled with the salt scent of the bay, her mind seems to fill with diesel fumes.

Though she's never far from an electric light in this city, here, on a rocky spit of shore, Asami is sitting in darkness, anonymous and alone.

The idea of being alone scared her only months ago, but at least when she's alone she doesn't have to lie to anyone. She doesn't have to pretend that everything is going to be okay. That she's okay.

Asami can't feel her feet. She knows she needs to move, but she can't find the desire to leave just yet. She picks up a stone and hefts it. She hurls it at the water listlessly, and watches it break the surface with a small splash, then sink from view.

Asami rests her chin on her knees and sighs. "Happy birthday, Asami."

She frowns when the water ripples in front of her, disturbed by something quite large beneath the surface. Asami tries to stand up, but her feet slip and her legs cramp when she does. She has to grip the side of the rock she's sitting on to avoid sliding into the water. 

The water parts ten feet in front of her and a large, dark shape emerges, rising up into the air on a pillar of churning water. The pillar twists and writhes, and the dark shape moves closer, dropping down onto the shore beside Asami. Asami stares at it, confused, until it moves closer and the darkness seems to fall away, revealing Korra.

"Asami?" Korra crosses the few feet of space between them, her boots crunching on loose stones. She isn't even damp, Asami realises. She must have been swimming in her own air pocket, because she can bend all four elements now. "Hey, you okay? I saw someone on the shore, and I didn't mean to bother you, but then I noticed that your feet were in the water, and it's pretty cold, and, uh, hey...let me look at you."

"Korra." Asami blinks and Korra is kneeling beside her. "I...must have got lost in my thoughts."

"Yeah? Did you get lost looking for them?" Korra chuckles softly. Gently, she eases Asami's booted feet out of the water and onto relatively dry land. "What are you doing out here?"

"I wanted...I, uh..." Asami shakes her head. She doesn't want to lie, but she doesn't think Korra of all people needs to hear the truth. "I needed to be alone. What are you doing out here? Protecting the harbour?"

"Needed a swim." Korra moves her hands above the surface of Asami's boots. She looks up at Asami's face, frowning slightly. But her frown eases into a soft smile. "Your boots have water in them."

"Ah...yes." Asami swallows. "I suppose they do. My feet are...cold."

Korra slowly nods. "Well, can't have the youngest CEO in the nation catching a chill. You mind if I try something?"

"No," Asami says, mildly surprised to find that it's true. She has no anger or resentment in her for Korra, not because Mako chose her, or because Korra is living her life as the Avatar she always wanted to be. It's strange, seeing her for the first time in months, seeing her like _this_ , but not unwelcome. "But...tell me you didn't read that profile in the Republic City Chronicle?"

"Of course I did!" Korra snorts. She takes a breath, and her hands begin to move in a new pattern. "I was impressed."

Asami raises her eyebrows. "You were?"

"Yeah." Korra's crooked grin appears. "I would've punched that reporter before he got through half his questions."

Asami almost laughs, but sudden, intense pain stabs her feet and she gasps.

"Sorry," Korra whispers, "that's your feet waking up. It won't hurt for long."

Before she's finished speaking, the pain recedes and warmth begins to spread through Asami's feet. It's a pleasant sensation, but it makes her abuptly aware of how cold her whole body is, and of how unpleasant it's going to be walking back to her Satomobile in damps socks and boots. She must do a poor job of suppressing her shiver, because Korra offers her another crooked smile.

"Relax. I'll take care of you."

Asami freezes, even as she begins to thaw. She watches in silence as Korra works, waterbending the pain from her feet, then the water from inside her boots. Korra's hands shift position, her breathing shifts, and she blows on Asami's boots. Steam curls from the leather as the moisture on the surface evaporates, leaving a delicious heat in her boots that spreads through her feet. Korra spreads her hands, palms up, and fire dances to life in the air between them. She closes her hands together, folding them over the flame, and rubs her hands briskly together. When she raises them, the fire is gone, but heat radiates from them. Korra passes her hands through the air over Asami's body, and warmth flows through her.

The current of Asami's blood has grown sluggish in the last few months, but now it surges inside her. Korra's expression is intent as she works, but there's no doubt, no worry on her face. This is what she does, Asami realises. This is who Korra _is_. For all the pride Korra takes in her bending and her physical prowess, she genuinely cares. She genuinely wants to help people. Korra didn't choose to be the Avatar, but she's embraced what it means, and she's living her life to the full.

Asami sighs. "You would have done this no matter who you found here with their feet in the water, wouldn't you?"

Korra blinks. Her hands don't stop, but something in her eyes shifts, closes off. "Uh, I hope so. I guess. Yeah? I...I’m just happy to be helping someone, I guess."

The cold has been chased from her bones, but shame settles on Asami's heart. She's been feeling sorry for herself, but that reporter--while punchable--wasn't entirely wrong. If Future Industries fails, Asami won't lose everything. But her workers will. She has to do better than this. She can't make the same mistakes her father made.

Korra finishes one final pass over Asami's legs. "How's that?"

"Better. I'm...embarrassed, though."

"Well..." Korra stands up and offers Asami her hand. "I get what it's like, getting caught up in your head. Try to do it beside a fire next time, though?"

Asami takes Korra's hand and allows the other girl to help her to her feet. She sways slightly, but Korra steadies her while she flexes her toes and finds her balance. "Good advice. Thank you."

Something must have slipped past Asami's defenses and shown itself in her tone, because Korra stiffens. Rather than release Asami's hand, she slides her fingers between Asami's. "I'm sorry," she says softly. "I'm not trying to tell you what to do. And I’m not trying to pretend like I know what’s best for you. I just...you need to look after yourself, okay?"

"Thank you, Korra." It comes out gentle this time. "I will." Too many people are counting on Asami for her to allow herself to become ill. Asami takes her hand from Korra's, almost reluctantly. As humiliating as it is to be caught like this, Korra’s concern is...the only concern anyone has spared her in months. Asami hesitates. "Can I...do you need a lift?"

In the tiny pause between the question she almost asked and the question she does ask, Asami finds that the answer matters to her more than it should, more than she can readily understand.

Korra looks away, across the water. She looks back with a faint smile. "Sure."

They climb the short but steep slope that separates the rocky beach from the edge of the city. From there, it's just a few steps to Asami's Satomobile. Asami climbs in and starts the engine, but Korra takes her time walking around the vehicle, her fingers trailing along the sides. She gets into the seat beside Asami and looks at her with eyes the colour of the water of the bay in starlight.

“Hey, I…” Korra looks at her fingertips, frowning.

"Is something wrong, Korra?"

"...no." She wipes her hand on her pants. “No.”

Asami swallows down her initial responses to the lie. "Okay. Let's get going."

She's aware, as she works the gearshift, that neither of them have specified where they're going. Asami's oddly reluctant to ask. She knows that she'll be taking Korra to the ferry, but there's a part of her that wants to point her Satomobile at the city and drive with Korra beside her until the night gives way to daylight. 

Maybe it's the desire to recapture what she shared with Korra and Bolin and Mako when they decided to make a stand against the Equalists. It was such a short time ago, and it had been a bad time, for the city, and for Asami. Things are better for the city now, so why does Asami feel worse? What has she lost, since those nights when she drove them all around the city and they resisted the Equalists and the injustice of the council's Task Force both?

What is it that Korra's presence lets her feel again, however distantly? Is it something she can afford to hold onto, when she's a Sato?

Asami pushes the thought from her mind. She starts driving, mentally mapping out the quickest route to the ferry. "Air Temple Island?"

"Right."

Asami puts on the radio, in time to catch an advert. "Oh. The new pro-bending season is starting. Are you going to compete this year?"

"No." Korra pauses. "The Avatar is needed elsewhere," she says flatly. “Besides, there are concerns that I’d be a distraction from the efforts to build a new league.”

"Oh! Well, uh, I imagine you're busy with everything going on."

"Trying to be." Korra sighs. "It's...not what I expected, I guess. Finally being the Avatar."

"The rules are different now?"

"I think...I think I thought they would be. Or I would be. But I'm not sure that they are. I'm not sure..."

The ferry terminal comes into view before Asami can pierce the silence that swallows the rest of Korra's words. Korra sits for a moment, staring at her hands. Asami watches her from the corner of her eye, feeling the cold night air begin to seep into her skin again.

Korra shakes herself. "Sorry. I'd better let you...you're busy." Asami watches Korra open the door and put her foot on the ground. She turns her head to offer Asami one last crooked smile. "Night."

"It's my birthday," Asami blurts. She flushes and grips the wheel with both hands, suddenly enraged, suddenly _furious_ at her mouth, at her weakness, at her stupidity. "I...don't know why I...please just for--"

"Bolin."

Asami blinks. "What?"

“We need Bolin. Clearly.” Korra lowers herself into the leather seat. She smiles at Asami. "I know where to find him at this time of night. We could get dinner? It’ll, uh, just be the three of us?"

Asami's hands loosen on the wheel. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's been too long. You pick a place and we'll eat."

"Okay." Asami lets out a breath. "That sounds good."

"Okay." Korra tucks her legs back into the vehicle and closes the door. "Let's do it!"

Asami hesitates. "You...could you not mention that I...at the beach?"

Korra slowly nods. "Sure. Just, uh...remember to find somewhere warmer next time."

"I will." Asami swallows. She sits upright and squares her shoulders. "I promise."

"Okay. Oh, and...Asami?"

"Yeah?"

Korra's smile brightens her whole face, turning her eyes to the colour of Yue Bay in the morning sun. "Happy birthday."

Asami smiles back. "Thanks."

She releases the brake and turns the Satomobile towards the city. Above is a sky in which no stars are visible. They’ve been stolen by the thickly clustered lamps of Republic City. Asami aims them like a rock at the lights. She stamps down on the accelerator.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> This was a bit of an odd one, because it's territory I've touched on before, a couple of times. I kinda almost didn't post this, but I think it's distinct enough from other things I've done? There's something about the months between Book 1 and 2 that keep tugging at me. How did the Korra we see at the end of Book 1 become the Korra of Book 2? How did Asami survive what must have been the toughest time of her life to date? I'm trying to fumble my way to some answers here. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
> 
> Take care, folks! Enjoy your winter solstice, howsoever you celebrate it!


End file.
